Maya's POV

The next morning after tossing and tumbling around in sleep, I woke up feeling more tired than I was when I was going to bed last night. Dark circles were rimmed under my eyes and my body ached in places that I thought wasn't even possible to 'ache'.

I somehow traipsed to the shower and put myself under the hot water. After a few minutes of standing sluggishly, I became a little refreshed and got dressed. After applying some make-up and quickly running a hand through my hair, I surveyed my outfit. I had to be dressed appropriately for the job.

I was wearing a black and red sweater dress with black leggings underneath my dress. I accompanied it with black boots and a red and black purse. I thought it looked good. After meeting my employer, I was to go apartment hunting with Vikram and Priyanka.

I walked downstairs and grabbed an apple to eat. "Ma, I'm leaving!"

"Good luck Maya, I'm sure you will do well!" My mother blessed me.

"Where are you going without having this!" My grandmother said, shoving a spoon of sweet curd in my mouth. Sweet curd was always fed before any huge events so it would give us good luck.

"Sorry Paati!" I said, pressing a kiss to her cheek. After hugging my dad good-bye, I waked to the car. I spotted Vikram through the window from my car. He had a toothbrush in his mouth and was dressed in a thin tank top and shorts.

"Gooo Loookk" He yelled from the window.

"Thanks!" I yelled back. He waved as I drove off. I pulled up the directions in my GPS and drove for 45 minutes until I reached the location.  The rain was already slamming down on the earth from the sky as I ran for cover from my car. I rang the doorbell and a man dressed in a suit answered the door.

Was I even in the right place?

"Yes Madame?" the man asked. He looked like the butler of this place. Again, I didn't know that they actually existed.

"Oh hi, I'm here for the nursing job?" I asked.

"Nursing? Ohh...you must be the nanny coming for the interview." The butler said as he invited me in.

Nanny? Excuse me, I was not a nanny!

"Nan-" I stopped my protest as I took in my surroundings. There was an elegant gold chandelier with crystal droplets hanging from the ceiling. The living room was sleek and stylish, designed with the latest furniture and the TV was huge, accompanied by the latest technology for speakers and the theatre system.

"Oh, my..." I said, awed.

"Hi!" A lady squealed from next to me. "You must be Maya! Oh I'm so excited to make a friend here! It's always so boring because there isn't anyone my age or close to my age but now you are here! I'm so excited to get to know you!"

The lady kept ranting on and on and I tuned her out, looking around me. Suddenly I heard a baby's cry.

"Oh, that must be the baby. She woke up just now. Let me show you to her room." The lady said.

I walked into the nursery which was filled with toys for girls and paintings that were child friendly. There was a crib with a mobile hanging from it. A camera was also strategically placed on the mobile.

"Maybe you should pick her up, because you are going to become the nanny after all!" the lady said. I smiled at her and picked up the crying child.

"It's ok honey...shhhh." I held her close to me as I cradled her. She slowly began to quieten down.

"What's her name?" I asked as I looked down at her now smiling face.

"Vedya." said a voice that sounded eerily familiar. I turned around, only to be met with the chilling eyes that haunted me for years.

"Ved." I whispered. He was dressed pristinely, in a suit with a blue tie to match his shirt. His hair was brushed to perfection and he held a hard gaze on me.

"Maya." he said, clearing his throat.

"You two know each other?" the lady asked, next to me.

"We are just acquaintances through high school Inayah." Ved swooped in quickly.

"Oh! So you must know about what kind of person Ved is huh?" Inayah asked me.

"Uh...." I said, unsure of what to convey to her.

"We didn't really talk to each other that much. Miss Srinivasan was always buried under her books." Ved said, covering for me smoothly.

"Ah, quite the opposite from you Ved!" Inayah said, a grin always on her face.

"Yes." I finally managed to say, regaining my ability to speak without making a fool of myself.

"And she agrees!" Inayah said. "Were you at the reunion yesterday?"

"Yes I was." I said, smiling.

"Did anything weird happen there, because this fellow came in the mansion yesterday night driving all rashly and getting soaked in the rain." Inayah said. And on cue, Ved sneezed into a handkerchief that he had managed to procure from his suit pocket.

"Nothing out of the ordinary." I said, looking at Ved. How could I tell Inayah that I was the reason for his behavior yesterday?

"Anyway, Ved is Vedya's father so he will discuss all of the details with you." Inayah said. Vedya's father?

Ved, was married? He had a child? Everything hit me like a ton of bricks. So this meant that Inayah was Ved's wife?

"Oh and sorry for not introducing myself. I'm Inayah, Ved's best friend from college which means that I was basically the only one who could tolerate him. Girl, we have to catch up sometime soon! I'm so excited to have a girl friend to talk to!" Inayah said. That cleared up my doubt but left me with a thousand more questions reeling in my mind.

Who was Vedya's mother? Where was she? Why did she leave her child?

"Ok Ved, sort out all the details. Mary already made the needed arrangements in the guest room so you can show Maya there. I'll take off now. Bye!" Inayah said, waving to me. She hugged Ved and then left the room.

Guest room? And now I was all alone in a room with the person that I least wanted to be with. Oh how I wished Vikram or Priyanka was here for me!

"Maya..." Ved said, taking a step closer. But then, he decided against it and stepped back to his original position. I looked away and decided to set Vedya back in the crib. She happily began playing with the toys and playing with the mobile above her head.

"Miss Srinivasan, I am Mr. Shastri, Vedya's father. As your job position describes, you will be with my daughter 24/7 and will care for her." Ved said.

24/7?

"But, I will be moving into my apartment soon.." I said, bluffing a bit. There was no way that I was going to live in the same place as him.

"This was already mentioned in the job description Ms. Srinivasan. Your living arrangements have been made. You can move in tomorrow with your things." Ved said.

I couldn't believe this, moving into Ved's house? I couldn't even handle him being around me for ten minutes, leave alone all the time!

"Other than this, I have mentioned some more things in this folder. Please safeguard this because it has important information needed for my daughter as well as this house. It has the map of the house as well as your personal security code to enter the house if you will be leaving. This code may not be revealed to anybody and everybody that needs to enter will have to bypass security." Ved said, handing me a folder.

"Ok." I said, barely composing myself under his towering height. He led me to my room of the house.

"This is your room. It has a full closet as well as a TV and a state of the art bathroom. The most important feature of this room is this tablet which connects to the baby monitors in Vedya's room. If there is anything wrong, then it will notify you with a beeping sound. If you are on the go, then this small device should be clipped onto your waistband. It will vibrate when there is anything wrong in Vedya's room." Ved said, his tone cold and harsh.

"Thank you." I said, my voice as clipped and sharp as possible.

"And Maya, as much hatred as you have on me, I don't want anything happening to my daughter, do you understand? I trust you which is why I am giving you this role." Ved said, his towering presence close to mine. His breath smelled like peppermint as I stared into his cold eyes, sensing his presence.

And for the first time ever, Ved left the room away from me, leaving me behind in shock.

A/N: OMG! Drama filled chapter! Let me know your thoughts people, and what you expect next. I'm starting school tomorrow at 6:45 in the morning and am literally savoring the last bits of freedom that I have. I don't know how regular the updates are going to be because I have two other books but you won't see an update for this book until I update my other books so, I don't know how long that is going to take. Hopefully, I will try to update by next week. Thank you so much for all the support and positive feedback though!